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Yup, I love how there's every kind of bike on here because, even when it's a type of bike I don't care for, it's common for me to see some really creative ideas and cool things done with them.

I started out as a kid building rat BMX bikes largely out of necessity, got injured and forgot about them, then came back after college with mountain biking. However, I have a lot of interests, not any one thing I can be obsessive about, and mountain biking doesn't seem to be the more casual affair I'd prefer for most people who do it. I never had the desire to spend the time and money to keep up with them and I got bored going alone. Then I rode/crashed a flat-tired old road bike that was part of an abandoned art project around the tower building of Mass Art and loved the lightweight feel, so I got a road bike. Found more or less the same kind of attitude among the road bike guys as the mountain bikers. Then a friend of mine got into biking and started Frankensteining stuff and I remembered how I liked doing that as a kid, how it was just as fun as the riding for me. Then I started to think more creatively about it and ended up here. These kinds of friendly, accepting sites seem pretty rare on the internet and I count myself lucky to have found a second one (the first was a site for Mk1 Subaru Legacys and I met some great people there).
 
For reference, a couple of months ago, a Specialized Stumpjumper, my dream bike for twenty+ years, in my size, nearly mint condition, came up for sale, and I couldn't justify dropping $600 on it. The last car I bought was $2300. Still rolling three years later. I'm a cheap sob
 
There's one thread, I kid you not, person is asking which bike you'd buy with his 11,000$ budget! I said a used car, a motorcycle, and then about five bikes would be great. They think I'm nuts.

$11k and they'll consider it outdated in three years! Unless he's a millionaire, I'd tell him to save that money for real estate where the money will go a lot further or give it away where the high will last a lot longer (and that money will also go further, if not for himself). I think of myself as practical more than cheap because I don't mind paying for something nice, but there's a point where the cost to value curve inverts and $11k is way past that and that's before factoring in huge depreciation. A friend of mine is married to a former (locally) competitive mountain bike racer who is still huge into it, has no plans for kids, and makes well into the 6-figures. He doesn't even buy bikes anywhere near that expensive because of the value curve.
 
Started off the year with a new bike
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Gad, my 50 year old tat now looks like a fill, but was originally a fish with a lot of detail inside it including the fish eye. At 74 years old I don't care that it now looks like a bruise where someone hit my arm with baseball bat. Being an ex nurse I took care of WWII vets and their tats were all faded and spread out as the body rejects and tries to absorb foreign matter. The tattooer told me that this bleeding and fading wouldn't happen to me because the new inks are better, not true, if you live long enough. I think I'll get mine outlined to sharpen it up and leave it as a fill. Not too many fills now a days so I could be ahead of the curve, by accident.
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My wife's grandpa was Navy, Korean vet. He had a giant eagle across his chest. He hated the thing, but it was so awesome! As with bikes, the new stuff just ain't the same, doesn't have the same history. Can a tattoo get patina?
 
My wife's grandpa was Navy, Korean vet. He had a giant eagle across his chest. He hated the thing, but it was so awesome! As with bikes, the new stuff just ain't the same, doesn't have the same history. Can a tattoo get patina?
Mine is past the patina stage, I think it's rusted out. It needs restoring.
 
You'd be impressed with what they're able to do with cover ups these days. They still hurt though, haven't been able to solve that yet...
 
This.
This!
This is what's driving me insane today. Supposedly an after-hours project at the factory, back when factories were in North America, and Craftspeople were permitted to play.
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According to the legend, they made two, one was destroyed, so this is THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD!! Perhaps the only factory made full suss tandem in existence. Someone prove me wrong, pics and links are essential
 
Today's project: Black, green, flat black, with wood, steel, balloon tire...
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It might not be a rat, but iit's definitely a bike!
Also helped Ms Thundrrr build a few boxes for vegetable gardens in the back yard.

*She picked on me for taking pictures of the wheelbarrow
 
Perhaps the only factory made full suss tandem in existence. Someone prove me wrong, pics and links are essential
Ventana, the best and still handcrafted in the USA: http://www.ventanausa.com/el-conquistador/

BTW, when recently organizing my bike parts I found a prototype hub I used to run that is one of probably only three left in existence. If it could tell tales...
 

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